Naruto The Movie: Shippuden

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All Rise...

Judge Adam Arseneau is really just a Shadow Clone. Gotcha!

The Charge

Believe it!

Opening Statement

Another day, another feature-length Naruto movie on DVD, and man it's getting
harder and harder to tell them apart from one another. They're astonishingly
identical.

Facts of the Case

After a rogue ninja unlocks a powerful and ancient evil, the Hidden Leaf
Village mobilizes into action! A vast and unstoppable army of terracotta
warriors is marching across the land, decimating everything in their path. Team
7—Uzumaki Naruto and his friends Sakura, Neji and Rock—are given an
important (but to Naruto, a boring) assignment of VIP protection. Their charge:
a young, brash and arrogant princess who alone possess the skills to lock away
the ancient evil once and for all.

Unfortunately for Naruto and his teammates, the enemy knows of the princess,
and dispatches powerful warriors to assassinate her. The princess has prophetic
powers and can foresee glimpses into her future, including the fates of those
who protect her. And her latest vision has clearly seen the death of Uzumaki
Naruto!

The Evidence

In many ways, Naruto best summarizes what being an anime fan in North America
is all about. You get to watch in horror as interesting and entertaining
Japanese media get translated and repurposed into mindless pap for hyperactive
pre-teen Americans. I considered myself a fan of the Japanese series and the
manga, but once Naruto hit the airwaves in North America, the end result
was…kind of embarrassing. Actually, mortifying is a better word to explain
it. But it comes with the territory. Sometimes, you just live on the wrong
continent.

Naruto The Movie: Shippuden is the first OVA to feature the updated
Shippuden storyline, skipping ahead in the series a few years to re-visit Naruto
and the Hidden Leaf Village as lanky and awkward teenagers. Everyone is more
mature and grown, except Naruto, who's still a gigantic screaming child, but
that's to be expected. On the whole, the Shippuden arc has been satisfying,
adding new ninja moves and techniques to the arsenal of the Leaf Village
shinobi, and adding increasingly dire threats and obstacles to overcome. It's
too bad that Naruto The Movie: Shippuden feels so much like old Naruto,
not the new Naruto. Nothing of the new Shippuden series seems to translate over
here; it's the same annoying Naruto, the same derivative and boring OVAs over
and over again.

Naruto began as (and still continues strong as) a weekly manga serial
published in Shonen Jump magazine. Once the show became popular enough to
warrant its own television anime adaptation, the animators quickly burned
through the comic material, since a thirty minute episode can often eat up five
or ten episodes of the manga worth of content per shot. When animators 'run out'
of material, so to speak, they have to allow months and months to pass to allow
the manga to pump out new content, and during these lulls, the cartoon kicks out
dreaded 'filler' episodes—original content created by the animation team
to fill in the gap. From a canon perspective, these episodes are questionable at
best. From a taste perspective, these episodes suck.

Why am I wasting precious review time relating this boring detail about
animation production to you, dear reader? It's because Naruto The Movie:
Shippuden feels like filler; like a half-dozen lousy episodes stretched into
an OVA, almost like a recycled storyline that tosses out a product with little
thought or consideration.

Consider, if you will, if any of this sound familiar? A big Evil or Bad
Thing emerges, and Team 7 gets sent on a non-combat mission, which makes Naruto
yell out and be angry in hilarious fashion. They're sent to run an errand, to
guard a VIP, usually someone Naruto has a personality clash with. They all get
attacked, and before you know it, Naruto and friends are in the heat of battle,
fighting for their lives. All looks hopeless, but through sheer stubborn will,
Naruto manages to win the fight and save the day, as well as the respect of the
VIP and his teammates. Aww shucks, high-fives all around!

Honestly? If this is all this franchise has to offer us now, fans might as
well pack it in. OVAs can be a mixed bag, but it's reasonable to expect that any
anime series producing one has one or more of the following: a superior but
complicated storyline that is deserving of its own movie to explore, or a crack
team of animators ready to bust out amazing and expensive animation too costly
and time consuming for regular series production. Naruto: Shipuuden: The
Movie, irritatingly, has neither. It's just the same old weak sauce we've
been getting for years. Even the animation—certainly nice by serialized
standards—isn't really eye-popping or wowing enough to necessitate a
standalone movie. It's good, but you won't be telling your friends about it, if
you catch my meaning.

I mean, for heaven's sake. Half the plot bears a suspicious resembles to the
most recent The Mummy film. And the ending
simply doesn't make sense. In fact, it robs sense from you. Whatever sense you
had in your head before watching this movie? You will have less of it when it is
finished. The last twenty minutes are so convoluted, they could make Yoshiyuki
Sadamoto (Neon Genesis Evangelion) furrow his brow in a vain attempt to
understand the situation.

Okay. That last joke was…a bit obscure. I apologize.

From a technical standpoint, this DVD is pretty decent, and fans of the show
should be satisfied by the anamorphic presentation. Colors are vibrant and
sharp, with respectable detail and black levels throughout. Some CGI elements
enhance some of the animation and battles, which all come out looking quite
sharp, especially compared to the series. You won't find any print damage or
visual artifacts here, save for some slight graininess, but only if you go
really hunting.

Audio comes in full 5.1 surround presentations, Japanese and English dub
both. Both are similar in balance and average utilization of rear channels and
medium bass response. The English dub is a bit punchier than the Japanese, as
seems to be common these days on dub jobs, but most people won't be bothered by
this. After all, you'd have to be able to tolerate the English dub, which for
Naruto is especially dreadful. English subtitles are included.

Extras are skinny. We get a translated copy of the original Japanese
promotional booklet distributed with the film in the DVD packaging, and on the
disc the obligatory trailers, music videos and a line art gallery.

Closing Statement

Like a bad filler arc come back to haunt fans of the franchise, Naruto The
Movie: Shippuden is derivative and uninspired. You will rent it, be mildly
entertained, and forget about it entirely within the space of two benign
hours.

The Verdict

You won't miss anything by skipping this one. I'll be sticking with the
manga.